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I ended up getting the normal update done before the Teddy Roosevelt story. The TR story will probably be done by Wednesday, since the amount of schoolwork I have is dying down a bit. I'll add footnotes tomorrow.

Part Ninety: The Ascendance of William Jennings Bryan

The Passing of Wit[1]:
While Morton's presidency was eventful, it was also short. In December of 1898, Morton came down with pneumonia and died on the 11th of January, 1899 at the age of 74. Bryan succeeded him at the age of 38, becoming the youngest person to ever accede to the presidency of the United States. In the following months, Bryan's ascension to the presidency gave the Republican Party a jump in popularity as Morton had become disliked by many in the Republican Party during the previous two years. Bryan's first actions as president were to replace two cabinet members. Bryan replaced Jay Gould as Secretary of the Treasury with George Cortelyou, replaced Orville Platt as Secretary of War with William Howard Taft, and replaced Edmund Morrill with Thomas Edward Watson as Secretary of Agriculture[2].

After Bryan succeeded to the presidency, the first item on his agenda was to push for the repeal of the Merriwether-Breckenridge Act. Bryan's commitment to the free silver cause was astounding, and in his first months in office, Bryan gave several speeches advocating a return to free silver. The speeches worked to a great effect. Support for bimetallism even among Republicans and Progressives had been waning in the recent decade as the recovering economy lessened the importance of the issue. But as Bryan tirelessly pushed the issue, a renewed support for bimetallism grew and a bill to repeal the act passed the House of Representatives with support from the West and much of the South. However, speculation on the American economy led to a recession in the middle of 1899 as the bill was gaining support. This recession led to the Senate tabling the bill, with Ohio senator William McKinley leading the opposition to the bill saying that Bryan's stubbornness on the issue would lead to ruin.


Butting Heads:
The failure to repeal the Merriwether-Breckenridge Act did not deter Bryan from attempting to push further legislation through Congress. Between Bryan's inauguration and the end of 1899, Congress initiated bills to establish a federal minimum wages, a bill to establish a federal department of commerce, and legislation to regulate food transport costs. Of these, only the Interstate Commerce Act which established the Department of Commerce was passed[3]. It had the support of the West and the urban centers in the Old Northwest and the Northeast. The Agricultural Transportation Act only had the true support of members from rural districts. While it had gained support from much of the West, many southern representatives were against the bill and along with opposition from the Northeast, voted it down.

While Bryan failed in Washington, he was largely successful in the rest of the country. During his presidency, Bryan made an unprecedented number of trips around the country. Bryan traveled extensively by rail, and these trips made him known as a successor of Andrew Jackson as a hero of the common man[4]. Bryan's speeches aroused much support from the American public about one more issue, which was Bryan's other major success in his presidency. In 1900, a constitutional amendment was proposed in Congress to directly elect Senators. The amendment passed the House in May of 1900, and was passed by the Senate in September.

Next came the passage of the amendment by the states. The New England states, which had already established statewide election of Senators, were the first to ratify the Sixteenth Amendment in June and July of 1900. States in the West ratified the amendment through the rest of 1900 along with New Jersey, Winfield, and Wisconsin. States in the Old Northwest ratified the amendment in the early months of 1901. New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland joined the ratification in April of 1901. It finally reached the two thirds requirement with ratification by North Carolina and Cuba in August of 1901. The midterm elections of 1902 were the first with the Sixteenth Amendment in force.

[1] This section is named for the nicknames Morton and Bryan received during the 1890s as "Wit the Elder" and "Wit the Younger".
[2] All the cabinet members here are real people.
[3] The Interstate Commerce Act is passed ten years later than OTL. The first Secretary of Commerce is Missouri Congressman William Hatch.
[4] Bryan's reputation mostly came from his advocacy for better labor conditions for urban workers, and his accomplishments for farmers. Modern historians are much more critical of Bryan during his administrations.